The news that All Might was teaching at UA made the whole country get all excited, and the mass media were pressing at the gates for days on end for a scoop. It made it really annoying to try and get in the front doors for class!
The day after our combat training, we were back in our homeroom class, with Mr. Aizawa looking all foreboding and sinister again.
"Hope you're rested from yesterday's battle trial. I took the liberty of looking at your marks and evaluation," he said, before launching into a speech telling each of us what we'd done wrong, pretty much the same lecture All Might gave me. Once he'd wrapped up that…
"Now, let's get on with the homeroom notices. I'm sorry to spring this on you all, but…"
What now? Another pop test?
"We need to pick a class president."
Finally, something school-like! It felt like everyone was thinking that together now.
"That's like, a leader position! I'll do it! Me, me!" I called out, at the same time as everyone else. Seriously, everyone in class was jumping to their feet, even Eijiro, pumping their fists and call out how much they wanted to do it. Of course, that wasn't surprising.
If this was just a normal school, then being class rep would just be a lot of boring paperwork. But here, in the Hero Course, it's more like guiding the group, a position that will build up your hero foundation all the faster. Of course everyone wanted to do it!
"Be quiet, everyone!" said Iida, the bossy boy with the glasses. "This is a task laden with responsibility, where you must carry and pull everyone else's weight. It's a holy office that requires the esteem and trust of everyone else in class. The only truly worthy leader will emerge from a democratic choice, reflecting the will of the people…which is why this must be settled by a vote."
HE's being lofty isn't he, with that proposal? everyone seemed to think all at once.
"It's still to early to have developed any trust in each other," said Asui, the frog girl.
"And everyone will just vote for themselves!" Eiji pointed out.
"And that's precisely why the person who does manage to earn multiple votes will be the truly appropriate person for the job, no?" said Iida, which was kinda hard to argue with. "Is that all right, Sensei?" he said, turning to Mr. Aizawa. "As long as you all decide by the deadline, anything's fine," said Mr. Aizawa, going to sleep in his old sleeping bag.
After we'd all cast our votes, the results were displayed on the board. I'd only gotten my own vote, and the winner, with three, was Midoriya, who looked real surprised.
"How did I get three votes?" he asked, like the idea of anyone supporting him was crazy or something.
"You gotta be kidding me! Who voted for Deku!?" demanded Bakugou, as always getting mad about him.
"Well, guess we know it wasn't you," sad the taping boy named Sero.
Iida was looking really upset. "Zero votes! I see how it is! Of course, since I insisted on the sacredness of the role…"
"You voted for somebody else?" said Yaoyorozu.
"Even though you wanted the job so badly? What are you doing, Iida?" asked Sato.
"So then," said Mr. Aizawa, coming out of his name, "It's president Midoriya and Vice President Yaoyorozu. (She'd ended up with two votes.)
Midoriya and Yaoyorozu stood up in front of us, with Midoriya looking really nervous and Yaoyorozu quite arrogant and annoyed.
"Well," said Eiji, "Midoriya was real fired up during our combat training!"
"And Yaoyorozu was real cool during the training analysis!" added Kaminari. "Maybe this won't be so bad."
I was still pretty disappointed not to get any votes…but ah well. I guess it would just be a lot of extra work anyway.
I had lunch in the neat UA cafeteria with Eiji and Kaminari. Kaminari had started hanging out with us from time to time, and he seemed pretty nice, if a little bit flirty and kinda dumb. We were chatting about the class rep position when all of a sudden, the UA alarm went off.
"Security level 3 has been breached! Students, please promptly evacuate."
"Huh?" I cried out, as we all stampeded for the door. A giant stampede crowded the hallways, and we were all getting crushed half to death. Everybody at UA seemed to be collectively panicking! Eiji and Kaminari got swept away through a crowd of people, with Eiji shouting "Go it slow, everybody stop!" as the crowd bore him away, and I started to freak out a little.
Then Iida seemed to rise from the crowd, as if he was flying on an invisible string. (We learned later on that he'd had Uraraka float him). Using his engines, he blasted himself to the doorway, standing on the emergency exit sign, and, glasses fallen away, addressed the crowd.
"Everybody, calm down! it's OK! It's just the press, there's nothing to panic about! It's OK! You're at UA. Let's conduct ourselves in the manner of those enrolled at the highest academia."
Everyone calmed down, and the crowd dispersed. The police arrived, and the reporters withdrew, and we all returned to Class 1-A.
"All right, President," said Yaoyorozu to Midoriya. "Start us off."
"Uh, we're supposed to decide who our other class officers will be, but first…I need to say something," he said, still shaking a bit, like uncertain of his own words. "I've thought a lot about this, and I think that Tenya Iida should be our class Rep! He was able to get the whole crowd to calm down, and I think that that makes him the right choice for the job."
"Yeah, he's got a point!" said Eiji, grinning and looking real satisfied. "Iida made a great showing back there at the lunchroom. I wouldn't have minded Midoriya either, of course," he added, apologetically.
"He looked like the guy on the emergency exit sign," said Kaminari, and the two of them both grinned.
"Whatever, just get on with it already," growled Mr. Aizawa from inside his sleeping bag. "Time is wasting."
"If it's the wish of the class rep," said Iida, "then I can't refuse."
I grinned to myself, as everyone was standing up, getting into the spirit of things. "Do us proud, emergency exit!" cheered Eiji. "Emergency exit Iida! Don't let us down!" said Kaminari. Everyone was pretty much on board, and just like that Iida became our class rep.
12:50 PM, the next day. With all that decided, Mr. Aizawa was ready to begin our hero studies.
"For the foundational heroics skills we'll study today, it was decided you'll be supervised by a three man team, consisting of me, All Might, and one other teacher."
"Sensei!" asked Sero, "what'll we be doing?"
Mr. Aizawa raised up a small card labeled 'RESCUE'. "Rescue training. To be the hero everyone needs, whether for a flood or any other disaster.
"Rescue training, sounds right up my alley!" said Kaminari.
"Totally!' I gushed, super psyched to finally be doing this.
"This is what a hero's whole job is!" said Eiji, getting all pumped. "I'm chomping at the bit!"
"Don't get ahead of yourselves," said Mr. Aizawa, totally killing the mood. "As I was saying, this time it's entirely up to each of you whether or not you wear your costume. Some of your costumes probably aren't adapted to the task at hand, after all. The training area is fairly far away, so we'll get there by bus. That's all. Go get prepared."
Rescue Training! The exact kind of hero work I was always most excited about! we all got changed and headed out to the bus - Midorwya's costume was still in repairs, since he'd destroyed it during combat training - with Iida giving us orders as our new rep. "In order to get everyone seated smoothly on the bus, file into two lines according to your numbers!" he yelled, blowing a whistle and swaying his hand back and forth.
Unfortunately for Iida…
"The bus's open layout ruined by boarding strategy," he moaned, as we all took random seats in the open part of the bus, me sitting between Iida and Aoyama.
"So there was really no point, huh?" I said sympathetically, patting his back and trying hard not to laugh.
"Hey, Midoriya" said Asui, who happened to be sitting between him and Eiji, "I always say what I think, no matter what's on my mind."
He jumped, like he hadn't even noticed her there, and could only mumble, "Uh, hi, Asui."
"Call me Tsuyu. Your quirk reminds me of All Might's." she said, being as matter-of-fact as her word.
He looked seriously freaked out. "That so? Haha, but mine isn't like…"
"Wait up, Asui," said Eiji. "All Might doesn't hurt himself. That's where the likeness ends." He looked over at Midoriya, and I noticed a bit of that old self-loathing starting to creep back into his voice. "I'm kinda jealous of that simple, enhancer type quirk. There's a lot you can do with one, and flashily too! My hardening power isn't bad for a fight, but I hate that it's just not that flashy."
There you go being all down on yourself again, Eiji, I thought to myself, and after being so cool in training.
Midoriya said, "Well, I think it's an awesome quirk! Definitely useful for a pro."
"Huh…but you know, heroics has a lot about it that can be more like a popularity contest, too," said Eiji, not really taking the complement.
Next to me, Aoyama said "My naval laser is both flashy and strong enough for the pro level," in his usual annoying boasty tone. I put my other hand on his shoulder and said, "But it's way lame if it gives you a stomachache, honey." He looked like that landed, and I was glad to see that Eiji looked a little more cheerful. He went on to say "Well, if anyone in our class has pro quirks, it's Todoroki and Bakugou," looking over at the back seats of the bus. Todoroki, a boy in our class ranked 2nd with cool ice and fire powers, was a sleep in the back seat, and Bakugou just looked annoyed as usual and turned away with an irritable scoff.
"Bakugou's always fuming, though," said Asui, "So he won't be popular.
"You frog face!" Yelled Bakugou, instantly mad. "Come over here and say that to my face."
"See?" said Asui, with a sly grin.
Kaminari laid on "It's only been a little while since we met you, but we've already been made apodictically cognizant of your personality, redolent as it is of a tired getting steamed in a sewer." Oh yeah, Kaminari talks like that to sound smart.
Bakugou started yelling at him, "What kinda vocabulary is that? I'll fucking kill you!"
And I wasn't sure what to think. I mean, Kaminari was basically poking the bear, but was Bakugou really gonna start a fight on the bus?
"Almost there, settle down already," came Mr. Aizawa's reprimand from the front seat. "Yes, sir!" we chorused back at him.
Only a few minutes later and the bus stopped outside a big circular building with reflective panels all over. Inside, we found…
A huge theme set of mock areas, like a theme park attraction! Like USJ, Universal Studios Japan or something!
"A ship wreck, a landslide, a fire, etc.," said a mic-fide voice I remembered hearing dozens of times on TV. "This is a practical training area I created to simulate all kinds of accidents and disasters, and it's name is The Unforeseen Simulation joint!"
So it really is USJ, was the first thought, but the second was about the tall Pro Hero in a spacesuit standing in front of us, who we all knew as -
"The space hero 13!" said Midoriya. "The chilvarous pro who does phenomenal work helping with disaster relief!"
"Wow, I've always liked 13!" cheered Uraraka.
Mr. Aizawa mumbled something to 13, as we all gathered around and got ready for the day ahead. "OK, well, shall we?" he said, apparently satisfied with 13's reply.
"Before we begin," said 13, holding up fingers as they spoke, "Just one thing, or two…or three…or four…"
We get it.
"I'm certain you're all already quite aware, but my quirk is called 'Black Hole'. No matter what material gets sucked into its vortex, it will turn to dust."
"That's a quirk that's perfect for removing wreckage, and saving people injured by disasters!" cheered Midoriya.
"Yes," said 13, and a sinister note suddenly came into their voice. "However, it is a power that could also easily be used to kill people. And in that way, it's no different from the quirks of everyone here. Naturally, in this society of superhumans, quirks are strictly regulated, and the requirements for their lawful use enforced. We can tell at a glance that that is the makeup of this world. That being said, please don't forget that each of you possesses a quirk that can go awry. One wrong step is all it takes to kill someone else by accident. During Mr. Aizawa's strength test, you learned your power's true potential, and during All Might's battle training, I think you took away a true sense of the danger of brandishing those powers against each other. This lesson will serve as a fresh start! Let's get to studying about how to wield our quirks for the sake of human life. Your quirks do not exist to hurt others. Please leave this exercise having fully understood that your quirks exist to help people."
They're so cool! I thought, alongside the rest of the class.
"That is all. You have my gratitude for listening so intently and patiently!" 13 concluded with a bow.
"All right, first things first," said Mr. Aizawa - but before he could finish what he was saying, something seemed to catch his eye. Far away, by the fountain near USJ's play, some kinda of black, swirling mist had appeared out of nowhere, growing larger and larger. Suddenly, a hand came through the mist, as if it were a portal, and a face appeared within…or not a face…a guy with scraggly hair and a severed hand, covering most of his face and exposing a single, scarlet, bloodshot eye.
"Huddle together and don't move!" said Mr. Aizawa. "13! Protect the students!"
"What is that?" said Eiji, looking down as a cascade of strangers swept in through the mist. "Is this like that training pattern at the entrance exam?"
"Don't move!" said Mr. Aizawa. His tone was dead serious. "This are villains!"
There they were, right in the midst of our rescue training. The villains who pros did battle with. The giant mist guy who'd brought them inside was saying "Eraserhead and #13…according to the teacher's curriculum we proceed yesterday, All Might was supposed to be here, and yet…"
"I knew it. That was you yesterday," said Mr. Aizawa.
"Where is he…we went through all this trouble, and rustled up so many of us to bring along…you can't tell me All Might, the symbol of peace, isn't here…" the hand guy was hissing. "I wonder if he'll show up, if we kill some of these her kids?"
What we faced that day was an evil we could never have suspected.